There is not much difference between children and adults. When adults get hungry and tired we get cranky too. Most adults have the self-control not to throw a temper tantrum…well some do.
When we cram our schedules and are too busy, tired, and running out of energy, we lose focus and get easily distracted. Are children any different?
You do not need to be a doctor or psychiatrist to know when children are perpetually tired, even a little bit, they too lose focus and get easily distracted. Any engaged parent will tell you that from experience.
However, many doctors and parents are too easily persuaded to label that sweet nocturnal deprived child with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
WHAT IF, as a growing number of researchers are proposing, many kids today simply aren't getting the sleep they need, leading to challenging behaviors that mimic ADD/ADHD?
This is a finding according to researcher Sandra Kooij of the Vrije University Medical Centre in Amsterdam.
That provocative and controversial theory has been gaining momentum in recent years, with several studies suggesting strong links between ADD/ADHD and the length, timing and quality of sleep.
Growing evidence suggests that a segment of children with ADD/ADHD are misdiagnosed and actually suffer from insufficient sleep, insomnia, obstructed breathing or another known sleep disorder.
But the most paradigm-challenging idea may be that ADD/ADHD may itself be a sleep disorder. If correct, this idea could fundamentally change the way ADD/ADHD is studied and treated.
Sleep problems fall into three categories: insufficient sleep, insomnia and disordered breathing. All are common among young children. Some studies estimate that their prevalence might be as high as 20 to 40 percent in young children.
Karen Bonuck, a professor of family and social medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, is known for her work on a 2012 study of 11,000 children published in the journal Pediatrics. It found that those with snoring, mouth breathing or apnea (in which a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep) were 40 percent to 100 percent more likely than those without the sleep issues to have behaviors resembling ADHD by age 7.
“There's a lot of evidence that sleep is a big factor in behavior in children,” Bonuck said.
Previous studies have shown that about 75 percent of people with ADHD have sleep disturbances and that the less sleep they get the more severe the symptoms.
WHAT IF your child or a child you loved could improve their behavior with better quality sleep?
WHAT IF their sleep was disrupted by their tongue blocking their airway, thus causing sleep apena, snoring and inhibiting sound sleep?
Dr. Wayne Whitley in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has created a simple, comfortable mouth piece that re-aligns the tongue to get the tongue out of the way so the child breathes optimally while sleeping.
There is only one way to find out. And it does not need to include government funding, university research or sophisticated technology.
WHAT IF one action you take today could change your child’s life?
WHAT IF a good sleep night after night after night was all your child needed to improve their behavior?
Call today. Make a profound difference in your child’s life today.
Visit Dr. Whitley’s website, www.drwaynewhitley.com and watch the amazing video testimonials. Then call for a FREE consultation.